EG send FURIA to playoff lower bracket in Belek

Evil Geniuses remain in the race for a spot in the playoff's upper bracket after taking down FURIA 2-0 in Group B's lower bracket final.

The North American team will move on to the consolidation final to face the losing side of the series between Ninjas in Pyjamas and G2 after dispatching FURIA in a close series. Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov who is currently sitting on a 1.19 tournament rating, was the star for EG as the team capitalised on key lapses made by Brazilians, who had strong starts to both maps but gradually lost steam. Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan's side now find themselves on the brink of elimination as they will take on the third-placed team from Group A in the playoffs' lower bracket.

Evil Geniuses endured a slow start to Mirage as they were run over by the FURIA offense during the early stages of the game, but everything changed after CeRq pulled off a 1v2 clutch to put his team on the board. Despite the best efforts of Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato, who kept FURIA in the game with two clutches, EG pinned the Brazilians against the ropes and kept them from stringing rounds together to come out on top of this explosive first half, though by only the slightest of margins.

Evil Geniuses took the second half pistol to further add to their lead, but FURIA began to chip away at the deficit once they had guns in hand. The Brazilians went on to take the lead, only to lose control of the game after collapsing in a round where EG were on a shoddy buy. As the momentum swung in the ex-NRG team's favor after that round, FURIA stopped looking like the same team and were unable to keep their opponents from running away with the game.

FURIA showed the same intensity with which they had started Mirage and jumped out to a 6-1 lead on the T side of Train. A trio of kills by Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz, followed by a Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte clutch, kept Evil Geniuses in the game and inspired belief in the team, who kept a very tight defense for the remainder of the half to bring the deficit to a minimum.

Now playing on the CT side, FURIA secured the pistol round, but they could not follow it up as EG hit back with nothing but pistols. The North American team rode that momentum to a 14-9 lead with some fast plays, with CeRq picking the Brazilian defense apart time and time again with his AWP. A p250 victory when all hope appeared to be lost breathed new life into FURIA's players, but a comeback was not on the cards as EG kept their cool even after losing a string of rounds, with Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold delivering the final blow with a 1v2 clutch.